Day 88: Berta Isla

First a note on the photo. I thought I would go to a boat launch in the Forsythe Wildlife Refuge to take my picture. However, I forgot that being three steps from the bay is the perfect breeding ground for biting insects. You can see quite a number of small gnats biting me in the picture. I set up my tripod, took one image, and jumped in my car four minutes later.

About the book:

Berta Isla is the story of Tomas Nevinson and his girlfriend, later wife, possible widow, and twelve years later, wife again, Berta Isla. The book is a spy novel with no MacGuffin, to use the term Alfred Hitchcock popularized. A MacGuffin is an event, an object, or a device that motivates the plot. For example, in the picture, The Maltese Falcon, the MacGuffin is the statue, the Maltese Falcon, which the characters go on a quest to find. In other words, Berta Isla is a sort of spy thriller where there is nothing to generate the thrill.

Perhaps I could describe the book this way. Berta Isla meets, falls in love with and marries Tomas Nevinson, then Tomas is recruited by an agency, probably MI5 or MI6. What he does for them is never specified although his wife suspects that he is involved with the IRA and, later, the Falklands war. Tomas is often gone for long periods of time. Most of the story is told from Berta’s perspective and she has almost no information about what her husband does. At one point Tomas leaves and does not come back for 12 years.

I would say that Marias’ book could be thought of as a metaphysical spy novel. Long passages in the book are devoted to wondering about the nature of identity. What does it mean to know a person? What are the boundaries of truth and understanding and lies and other big questions? The whole book is quite long and is really one long attempt to answer the question of what a spy might be a metaphor for. Marias also has a tendency to write long descriptions and long sentences. Many of the sentences are worth pausing and contemplating. However, if you want a traditional spy thriller you will hate this book.

May 19, 2025. Kindle and Libro.fm audiobook. 534 pages.